The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art. Internal combustion engines, regardless of whether they are gasoline powered or diesel powered, typically generate high quantities of heat during operation due to the combustion process. The generated heat is typically removed from the engine, and the air surrounding the engine, or at least reduced to prevent the engine from overheating and to permit the engine to operate more efficiently. Such heat removal may be accomplished by an engine driven cooling fan that is driven directly by a fan pulley that is turned by an engine crankshaft which spins as a result of combustion. Alternatively, an electric cooling fan may be driven by electricity from a battery that is charged by an alternator, which is coupled to an engine driven pulley using a belt. Thus, engine driven cooling fans and electrical fans both possess the limitation of requiring energy from internal combustion that might otherwise be utilized to move a vehicle, thus detracting from a vehicle's efficiency, such as its overall fuel economy, or miles per gallon (mpg).
Another limitation is that the speed of an engine driven cooling fan is typically controlled by the speed of the engine (rpm), and not the temperature of the engine. Still yet, another limitation of engine driven cooling fans and electric fans is that they each may require the use of additional engine pulleys and additional lengths of belt to drive such a pulley thus resulting in increased overall noise, vibration and harshness detectable within a vehicle cabin. Such noise, vibration and harshness detracts from overall ride quality experienced by vehicle occupants.
What is needed then is a device that does not suffer from the above limitations. This, in turn, will result in a cooling device and method of cooling that utilizes heat from an internal combustion engine to drive the cooling device to remove heat from the engine.